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Avoirdupois.

-In A., Petrarch spent several years; it was here he saw Laura, whose monument is to be found in the Franciscan church. Vaucluse, which he has immortalized, lies about 3 leagues from Avignon. A. was the capital of the ancient Cavares, and presents many remains of the times of the Romans. In the middle ages, it formed, with the surrounding district, a co., which the popes, who had already received the co. of Venaissin as a gift from king Philip III., bought in 1348 from Joanna, queen of Naples and countess of Provence. The pope governed both counties through a vice-legate, and continued in the possession of them till 1790, when, after several stormy and bloody scenes, the city with its district was united with France. At the peace of Tolentino, 1797, the pope formally resigned A, and Venaissin. A. is celebrated in ecclesiastical history as being, for a time, the residence of the popes. By order of Philip IV., of France, pope Clement V. and six of his successors from 1309 to 1377, were obliged to reside there. It was afterwards the residence of more than one anti-pope. Two ecclesiastical councils were also held at A. (1326 and 1337): the first took into consideration the relation of the clergy to the laity; the other, the bad training of the clergy.

AVILA, at of Spain, capital of the province of A., in Old Castile, 53 m. n.w. of Madrid; pop. 9000. The Spaniards declare that its original name was Abula, and please themselves and amuse strangers with the belief that it was built by Hercules 1660 B.C. It is the birthplace of two highly remarkable persons-the first was the learned Alfonso Tostado de Madrigal, who d. in 1455, and whose doctrines (according to his biographer) were so enlightened that they caused the blind to see, though, in the opinion of Don Quixote, he was more voluminous than luminous; the second is “Our Seraphic Mother, the Holy Teresa, Spouse of Jesus," b. Mar. 28, 1515; she was made the lady-patroness of Spain by Philip III., and shares the honors of worship with St. James. A. is the see of a bishop, with a beautiful cathedral, and was at one time one of the richest and most flourishing cities of Spain. The university, which had been founded in 1482, and enlarged in 1638, was abolished in 1807. It was at A. that the nobles of Old Castile assembled in 1465 to depose king Henry IV., and raise his brother Alfonso to the throne of Leon and Castile. At A., also, was held the meeting of the so-called Third Estate, or of the Holy League, in 1520, under the leadership of Juan Padilla, to which nearly all the cities of Castile sent representatives.

AVILA, a province in Spain; 2569 sq.m.; pop. '83, 185,219. It is bounded n. by Valladolid, e. by Segovia, s. by Toledo, and w. by Salamanca. The n. part is level, with marl soil not especially productive, and has a climate ranging from extreme heat to extreme cold; agriculture is the chief occupation. The s. part is a mass of rugged ridges, with a few well-watered and fertile valleys; the winter is long and severe, but the climate is healthful; cattle-raising is the main business. Five small rivers intersect the province. There are minerals in the mountains, but no mines are worked. Quarries of marble and jasper yield some profit. Merino wool has been the principal product; but all industries are repressed by feudal rights and laws of entail and mortmain. Game is plentiful, and fish are abundant. Silk worms are cultivated; oil, olives, chestnuts, and grapes grow naturally. There is very little trade or manufacturing industry.

AVILA Y ZUNIGA, DON LUIZ DE; a Spanish general, diplomatist, and historian, b. at Placencia, in Estremadura, enjoyed the favor and confidence of Charles V., who intrusted him with embassies to the popes Paul IV. and Pius IV., and made him grand master of the order of Alcantara. He accompanied the emperor on his expeditions to Africa and against the princes of the league of Schmalkald, and wrote an account of the war which goes under that name, partial, indeed, but able and spirited. The Commentarios de la Guerra de Alemanna hecha por Carlos V. en 1546 y 1547, have been published repeatedly (first Ven. 1548), and translated into several languages.—AVILA, GIL GONZALEZ DE, b. at Avila, in Old Castile, in 1559, and d. in 1658, was a Jesuit and canon of Salamanca; also royal historiographer for Castile and the Indies. He composed a great number of historical works, of which the following may be mentioned as containing many valuable facts: Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Rey Don Henrique III. de Castilla (Madr. 1638); Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Monarca D. Filipe III. (in Mendoza's Monarquia de España, 3 vols. Madr. 1770); Historia de Salamanca (Salam. 1606); and the Teatro Ecclesiastico de la primitiva Iglesia de las Indias Occidentales (2. vols. Madr. 1649– 1656).

AVILE'S (Anc. Flavignavia), a t. of Asturias, Spain, in the province of Oviedo, and 19 m. n. by w. from Oviedo, at the mouth of the chief branch of the Aviles, which is here crossed by a bridge, and is navigable at high water for vessels of the largest size up to the town. It has several good squares, but the streets are irregular and arcaded. There are copper-mines in the vicinity, and a considerable trade is carried on in copper vessels manufactured from their produce, as well as in coal, which is obtained not far from the town. Manufactures of earthenware, glass, linen, etc., are also carried on. A. is one of the cradles of the Spanish monarchy, and contains a number of curious old buildings. The charter granted to the t. by Alonso VII. in 1135 is preserved among the public records. Pop. 8400.

AVITUS, ALCIMUS ECDICIUS, d. 525; a poet and bishop of Vienna, who was canonized as a saint because of his opposition to Arianism. He left a poem on the creation

61

Avoirdupois.

and original sin, which has been thought to have some resemblance to Milton's Paradise Lost.

AVIZ, an order of knighthood in Portugal, instituted by Sancho, the first king of Portugal, in imitation of the order of Calatrava, and having, like it, for its object the subjection of the Moors. By the present usage, the king of Portugal, who is grand master of all of them, wears decorations of the first three orders of Portugal-those of Christ, St. James, and Aviz united in one medal, divided into three equal spaces.

AVLO'NA, or VALONA; a seaport in Albania, the ancient Audon, in the pachalik of Janina, on the gulf of A.; pop. 6000. Trade is in the hands of the Christian portion of the people. The Turks manufacture arms and woolen goods.

AVOCA or OVOCA (Celt. meeting of the waters), a small river in the s.e. of Wicklow co., formed by the union of two streams, rising in the hills of the center of the county. The A. runs through a very picturesque vale only a quarter of a mile broad, with wooded banks 300 to 500 ft. high, and after a course of 9 m., reaches the sea at Arklow. A. vale is celebrated in Moore's Irish Melodies.

AVOCA DO PEAR, or ALLIGATOR PEAR (Perse'a gratissima), a fruit tree of the natural order Lauracea (q.v.), a native of the warm regions of America. It attains the height of 30 to 70 ft., and is a slender tree with a dome-like top. The leaves resemble those of the laurel. The flowers are small, and produced towards the extremities of the branches. The fruit is a drupe, but in size and shape resembles a large pear; is usually of a brown color, and has a soft green or yellowishi pulp, not very sweet, but of a delicate flavor, which dissolves like butter on the tongue, and is believed to consist principally of a fixed oil. It is called vegetable butter in some of the French colonies. It is much esteemed in the West Indies, and often eaten with sugar and lime-juice or wine, or with spices.

AVOCET', or AVOSET (Recurvirostra), a genus of birds, which, although having the feet webbed nearly to the end of the toes, is usually ranked among the Gralla or Grallatores, upon account of the length of the legs, the half-naked thighs, the long, slender, elastic bill, and the general agreement in habits with snipes. They are distinguished from all other birds, except a few species of humming-bird, by the strong upward curvature of the bill, which is much like a thin piece of elastic whalebone, and most probably a delicate organ of touch, adapted for seeking food in mud, as their webbed feet are for walking upon it, and their long legs for wading in the fens and marshes which they frequent. They are birds of powerful wing. They are not much addicted to swimming. They scoop through the mud with the bill, first to one side, and then to the other, in quest of worms and other small animals; although Audubon has also observed the American A. taking insects which were swimming on the surface of the water, and expertly catching them in the air, running after them with partially expanded wings.The common A. (R. avocetta), the body of which is about as large as that of a lapwing, is sometimes, though very rarely, found in the fenny districts of England; it is also a native of the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, occurring even at the cape of Good Hope. See illus., BIRDS, p. 574, fig. 14.-Other species are natives of North America, India, and New Holland.-The American A. (R. Americana) has the bill less recurved than the common A.

AVOGADRO'S LAW. See ATOMIC THEORY.

AVOIDANCE, in English ecclesiastical law, the term by which the vacancy of a benefice, or the fact of its being void of an incumbent, is signified. See BENEFICE.

AVOIRDUPOIS, or AVERDUPOIS', is the name given to the system of weights and measures applied in Great Britain and Ireland to all goods except the precious metals and precious stones. The word is generally said to be derived from the French avoir du pois, to have weight; but the middle-age Latin word averia or avera, used for goods in general, or the middle-age Latin averare, and French avérer, meaning to verify, seem to offer more probable etymologies.

The grain is the foundation of the Avoirdupois system, as well as of the Troy. A cubic inch of water weighs 252-458 grains. Of the grains so determined, 7000 make a pound A., and 5760 a pound Troy. See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.-The A. pound is divided into 16 ounces, and the ounce into 16 drams. A dram, therefore, contains 27 grains, and an ounce 437 grains.

2711 grains...

TABLE OF AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT.

.are 1 dram,

1 dr.

66

16 drams or drachms.

1 ounce,

" 1 pound,

1 oz.
1 lb.

16 ounces.....

28 pounds.

1 qr.

4 quarters..

20 hundredweight...

"1 quarter,

"1 hundredweight, 1 cwt.

"1 ton,

1 ton.

A cubic ft. of water weighs 997-14 oz. A., or nearly 1000 oz., which gives an easy rule for determining the weight of a cubic ft. of any substance from its specific gravity. A. is the weight used in the United States of North America, where, however, in many places, the cwt. contains only 100 lbs., and the ton, 2000 lbs.

AVOLA, a t. in Sicily, 13 m. s. w. of Syracuse; pop. 11,912. A. was ruined by an earthquake in 1693, but was soon rebuilt. It has a fishery and a sugar refinery; and the neighborhood is still famous for honey, the "honey of Hybla" so much praised by ancient writers.

A VON, a word of British or Celtic origin, meaning “river" or "stream;” which seems allied to Aa (q.v.), the name of so many continental rivers. It is the name of several of the smaller British rivers. Of these may be noticed: 1. The Upper or Warwickshire A., which rises in northwest Northamptonshire, runs s. w. through Warwickshire and Worcestershire, passing Rugby, Warwick, Stratford, and Evesham, and joining the Severn at Tewkesbury. It has a course of 100 m., and receives several tributaries. 2. The lower, or Bristol, or west A., which rises in northwest Wiltshire, and runs 70 or 80 m. first s. in Wiltshire, and then w. and n.w. between Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. It traverses an oolitic basin, passing Bradford, Bath and Bristol, and empties itself into the British channel. It is navigable for large vessels up to Bristol. It runs generally between deep banks in a rich valley. A canal through the middle of Wiltshire connects it with the Thames. 3. The Wiltshire and Hampshire, or east A., which rises in the middle of Wiltshire, and runs s. 70 m. through Wiltshire and Hampshire, passing Amesbury, Salisbury, and Ringwood, and entering the English channel at Christ-church. It is navigable up to Salisbury. It abounds in the small delicate loach. In Wales two rivers named A.-one rising in Monmouthshire, the other in Glamorganshire-fall into Swansea Bay. In Scotland there are several of the same name, affluents of the Spey, Annan, Clyde, and Forth.

A'VON SPRINGS, a resort for invalids, its mineral waters being valuable in cutaneous diseases and rheumatism. Avon is a village in New York, 19 m. s.s.w. of Rochester, beautifully situated on a small plateau near the Genesee river.

AVOYELLES, a parish in Louisiana, on the Red river; 800 sq.m.; pop. '80, 16,7474987 colored. It is chiefly level and low, and subject to overflows from the river. Corn, rice, cotton, and sugar are the leading products. Chief town, Marksville.

AVRANCHES (anc. Abranca), a city of the dep. of Manche, France, near the left bank of the Seez, 33 m. s. s. w. from St. Lo. It stands on the sides and summit of a high hill, which extends in a long ridge, and the ascent of which is by zigzag roads on terraces. This hill commands a very wide and beautiful view of a finely wooded and cultivated district, with a winding river, which expands into a broad estuary, at the mouth of which is the high islet peak of Mt. St. Michel. A. was formerly a bishop's see, and its cathedral was one of the most magnificent in Normandy, but was pulled down in 1799 to prevent it from falling. A stone still preserved on the site of the cathedral is said to be that on which Henry II. of England kneeled before the papal legates to receive absolution for the murder of Becket. Before the Roman conquest of Gaul, A. was the capital of the Abrincatui. It was a place of importance during the Roman period. Charlemagne fortified it, but it was taken by the Normans in 865. It was afterwards a frequent object and scene of strife during the wars between the French and English. It has manufactures of lace, tiles, and bricks, and a little trade in grain, butter, cattle, etc. Pop. '81, 7800.

AWAJI, an island in the inland sea of Japan, between Shikoku and the mainland, celebrated for its crackle and yellow glazed pottery. In Japanese mythology, it was the first created of all the islands.

AWARD, the decision of arbitrators or referees, or the document containing their judgment. An A. must be consonant with and follow the submission, and affect only the parties; it must be final, certain, specific, without palpable or apparent mistake, and must be possible to be performed. The effect of an A. is a final judgment between the parties in all matters submitted. It transfers property as much as does the verdict of a jury, and will estop the statute of limitations. An A. may be enforced by an action at law or under a rule of court. Courts have no power to alter or amend an A., but may recommit to the referee in cases of uncertainty, mistake, etc.

AWÁTA, a village in the suburbs of Kioto, Japan, famous for its yellow faience. A. pottery was invented in the 17th c., is decorated, and by the Japanese is called Tamago Yaki (egg-ware). It is largely exported to the United States.

AWE, LOCH, a lake in the center of Argyleshire, extending in a direction n.e. and s. w. about 24 m., with an average breadth of from half a m. to 2 miles. It rarely freezes, and its surface is 108 ft. above the sea. The country around consists of mica slate. The scenery is most striking at the n.e. end of the lake, where the water is studded with numerous wooded islets, overshadowed by towering and rugged mountains, prominent among which rises the dark and rocky ridge of Ben Cruachan, 3669 ft. high and 14 m. in circuit. Of the islands, the most noted is Fraocheilean, containing the remains of 2 castle granted to Gilbert M'Naughton in 1267 by Alexander III. On a peninsula, in the n. end of the lake, stands Kilchurn casle (Caesteal Chaoil-chuirn), once a fortress of great strength, built about 1440 by Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and garrisoned, as late as 1745, by the king's troops. The waters of the lake are carried off at its n.w. end by the river Awe, which, after a course of 7 m., enters the sea at Bunawe on loch Etive. The magnificent "Pass of Awe," through which the road runs beneath the shoulder

of Ben Cruachan, was the scene of a conflict, in 1308, between Robert the Bruce and the M'Dougalls of Lorn, in which that clan was all but exterminated. At the n.e. end of the loch, it receives the waters of the Orchy and Strae, flowing through glens of their own nanies. Loch A. contains fine fish, especially trout, salmo ferox, and salmon; and the small villages of Claddich and Port Sonachan, on the e. side of the loch, due n. of Inveraray, are the general resort of anglers.

A-WEATHER is a term denoting the position of the heim when jammed close to the weather-side of a ship; it is the reverse of a-lee.

A-WEIGH, as applied to the position of an anchor, when just loosened from the ground and hanging vertically in the water, is nearly equivalent to a-trip.

AWN (Arista), in the flowers of grasses, a solitary pointed bristle, growing either from a glume or a palea. The flowers of some grasses are entirely aunless; in many, the glumes alone are awned (or aristate), or only one of them; in others, the glumes are awnless, and the paleæ, or one palea, awned. The awn is often terminal, and appears as a prolongation of the midrib of the glume or palea; from which, however, it sometimes separates below the point, and is then said to be on the back of it, or dorsal; sometimes it is jointed at the base, and finally separates at the joint, sometimes it is knee-bent or geniculate; sometimes it is twisted, and liable to twist and untwist hygrometrically; sometimes it is rough, or even serrate, at the edges, as in barley; sometimes it is feathery, as in feather-grass (stipa), which also is remarkable for the great length of its awn. The characters of genera and species are often derived from it, but it is not always invariable, even in the same species, and the cultivated varieties of wheat and oats differ much in being more or less bearded. There appears to be a tendency to the diminution or disappearance of the awn through cultivation.

AWYAW, AGA-OJO, or Ovo, a city in central Africa, the capital of Yoruba; est. pop. 70,000.

AX, or DAX (anc. Aqua Augusta), a noted watering place in France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, 2000 ft. above the sea, on the Odour river, 32 m. by rail n.e. of Bayonne. It is a village of about 2000 inhabitants. There are more than 50 springs varying in temperature from 100° to 200°. One of the springs is famous for curing leprosy.

AXAYCA TL, Emperor of Mexico, the father of the second Montezuma. About 1467 he led his Aztecs to the conquest of Tehuantepec, and afterwards defeated a rebellion that threatened his capital, the city of Mexico. He died suddenly, about 1477. Half a century later the soldiers of Cortes occupied A.'s palace, and discovered an immense treasure of gold and silver in ore and bars, with jewels, and many curious articles of manufacture.

AXE, the name of two small rivers in the s. w. of England. One rises in the Mendip hills, n. of Somerset, runs first s. w. and then n.e., through a carboniferous limestone, trias, and diluvial basin, past Wells and Axbridge, into the Bristol channel. The other rises in west Dorset, and flows 21 m. s. and s. w., through east Devonshire, in an oolitic and trias basin, past Axminster into the English channel. A. is only another form of Exe. See AA.

AXE, one of the oldest tools used by man; formed in the early ages of stone, bronze, copper, and iron. At present an A. is mainly of wrought iron, with a cutting edge of fine steel. The butt or main part, is made of good rolled iron, cut into suitable lengths, hollowed at the middle so that when the ends are brought together the hollow will form the eye for the handle. Between the ends is welded in a cutting piece of steel, Projecting an inch or more beyond the iron, and thinned down nearly to an edge. Having been properly tempered and ground, and fitted with a wooden helve, the axe is ready for use. Forms and weights vary according to the use to which the tool is to be put. For very hard timber the cutting edge is narrow, and the whole instrument heavy; for carpenter work on soft timber, the edge is of 8 to 12 in., as in the broad-axe. Common forest axes weigh from 3 to 7 lbs. Besides these forms, there are the adze, a tool used for chipping, or rough planing by carpenters, and the pickaxe (which is not an axe in any sense) for digging in hard ground. American axes have a high reputation in Europe, and have to some extent supplanted the English article in the markets of that

country.

AXEL, or AB'SALON, Archbishop of Lund, in Denmark, and also minister and general of king Waldemar I., was b. in 1128, and d. 1201. He was descended of a distinguished family, and, in his youth, studied at Paris. A. distinguished himself as well by wisdom and uprightness in peace, as by valor and address in war. The Wendish pirates were not only driven from the coasts of Denmark, but attacked in their own settlements, and subdued. He defeated the Pomeranian prince, Bogislav, and made him dependent on Denmark. In the wise legislation of Waldemar and of his son, he took a great part. He favored and promoted learning and art, and to his encouragement we owe the first connected history of Denmark by Saxo Grammaticus. By building a fortified castle for defense against the pirates, he laid the foundation of the future great city of Copenhagen, which was then an insignificant village, inhabited only by fishermen. Owing to this origin, Copenhagen has sometimes got the name of Axelstadt. A. lies buried in the

church of Soroe, where he had founded a monastery. The relics found when his grave was opened in 1827, the chief of which were a bishop's staff and ring, are described in the latest complete biography of A. by Estrup, translated into German by Mohnike in Illgen's Zeitschrift für Historische Theologie (2 vols. Leip. 1832).

AXESTONE, a mineral generally regarded as a variety of nephrite (q.v.). It is of a greenish color, is more or less translucent, hard, tough, and not easily broken. It occurs in primitive rocks, always massive, and is found in Saxony, in Greenland, and in New Zealand and other islands of the southern Pacific. It derives its name from the use to which it is put by the natives of these islands for making their hatchets. make ear-drops of it.

They also

AX'HOLME ISLE (A. Sax. holme, a river-isle), a low level tract in the n. of Nottinghamshire, surrounded by rivers-the Trent on thee.; Don, n. and w.; Torne and Idle, on the w.; and Vicardyke, between the Trent and Idle on the south. This district, 18 m, from n. to s., and five on an average e. and w., was anciently a forest, but afterwards became a marsh. The marsh was drained into the Trent in 1634 by Vermuyden, a Dutchman, after five years' labor, and at the cost of £56,000. The reclaimed land became very fertile under Dutch and French Protestant settlers, and after much litigation, it was, in 1691, divided, the original inhabitants receiving 10,532 acres, and the settlers 2868. On the land are raised abundant crops of wheat, oats, rye, pease, beans, clover, flax, rape, hemp, potatoes, and onions. Peat and turf fuel abound, and valuable gypsum beds occur. The water is brackish, too hard for washing, and curdles milk when boiled with it. A. I. includes seven parishes. There are two small towns, Crowle and Epworth.

AX'IL, Axilla, in botany, the angle between the upper side of a leaf and the stem or branch from which it grows. Buds usually grow in the axils of leaves, although they are not always actually developed; but a bud may be made to appear in such a situation, and to form a new shoot or branch, by artificial means, which direct the strength of the plant more particularly to that quarter, as cutting over the main stem, wounding it above the place where the new branch is desired, etc. Flowers or flower-stalks (peduncles) growing from the axils of leaves are called axillary.

AXIM', a t. on the Guinea coast, Africa, 73 m. w. of Cape Coast Castle. In 1642, it was taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch, who, in 1872, ceded it with the whole of their possessions in Guinea to the English.

AX'INITE, a mineral containing oxide of iron, lime, alumina, and silica, occurring in flat, sharp crystals, edged like an axe.

AXINOMANCY (Gr. axine, an axe, and manteia, divination), a mode of divination much practiced by the ancient Greeks, particularly with the view of discovering the perpetrators of great crimes. An axe was poised upon a stake, and was supposed to move so as to indicate the guilty person; or the names of suspected persons being pronounced, the motion of the axe at a particular name was accepted as a sign of guilt. Another method of A. was by watching the movements of an agate placed upon a red-hot axe. This is only one of a multitude of analogous modes of divination practiced in all ages and among all nations. See DIVINATION, and DIVINING-ROD.

AXIOM, a Greek word meaning a demand or assumption, is commonly used to signify a general proposition, which the understanding recognizes as true, as soon as the import of the words conveying it is apprehended. Such a proposition is therefore known directly, and does not need to be deduced from any other. Of this kind, for example, are all propositions whose predicate is a property essential to our notion of the subject. Every rational science requires such fundamental propositions, from which all the truths composing it are derived; the whole of geometry, for instance, rests on, comparatively, a very few axioms. Whether there is, for the whole of human knowledge, any single, absolutely first A., from which all else that is known may be deduced, is a question that has given rise to much disputation; but the fact, that human knowledge may have various starting-points, answers it in the negative. Mathematicians use the word A. to denote those propositions which they must assume as known from some other source than deductive reasoning, and employ in proving all the other truths of the science. The rigor of method requires that no more be assumed than are absolutely necessary. Every self-evident proposition, therefore, is not an A. in this sense, though, of course, it is desirable that every A. be self-evident; thus, Euclid rests the whole of geometry on 15 assumptions, but he proves propositions that are at least as self-evident. as some that he takes for granted. That "any two sides of a triangle are greater than the third," is as self-evident as that "all right angles are equal to one another," and much more so than his assumption about parallels, which, it has been remarked, is neither self-evident nor even easily made evident. See PARALLELS. Euclid's assumptions are divided into 3 "postulates" or demands, and 12 "common notions"-the term A. is of later introduction. The distinction between axioms and postulates is usually stated in this way: an A. is "a theorem granted without demonstration;" a postulate is "a problem granted without construction "-as, to draw a straight line between two given points.

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